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The obvious comparison is to another BlackBerry model. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 for example, which offers much of the same, but with a much bigger profile and a full QWERTY keyboard. Horses for course you might say.

Of course, if you want to check out other smartphones and aren't set on a BlackBerry, the Palm Pre Plus has just hit the market, or if Android and touchscreens appeal, check out the highly-rated HTC Desire or HTC Legend.

Of course, there's that thing called the iPhone 3GS too, but if you fancy one of those, you might want to sit tight until the iPhone 4 is released in the very near future.

We like the fact that RIM has packed just about every high-end BlackBerry feature (QWERTY excepted) into a small and stylish device and we like its ease of use. But it's not without its flaws.

Despite these, we find ourselves quite liking the Pearl 3G. It offers just about every mobile essential and more, with almost everything functions as it should.

And if SureType works for you, this is a very small and convenient way of keeping up with your email correspondence.

We disliked

Call quality is below what we would expect, network coverage was very disappointing for long periods and to be honest, the familiar look of the BlackBerry interface is perhaps an indication that the interface is just a little too long in the tooth.

Whether SureType works is up for debate too. In an age of touchscreen keyboards, looking to predictive text for inspiration doesn't fill us with confidence.

Verdict

The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is a good quality smartphone that should serve you well, but with just a couple two many issues to make it a highly-recommended one and the lack of a genuine wow factor, it's not going to top our charts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phones and Tablets Editor

Gareth (Twitter, Google+) has been part of the mobile phone industry from the era of the brick to the tiny device in the pocket... and now watching them grow back up to behemothic proportions once more. He's spent five years dissecting all the top phones in the world as TechRadar's Phones and Tablets Editor, and still can't resist answering the dreaded question - "which new phone should I get?" - with 15 choices.